Editing Sheldon Jackson (section)

==Education policy==
In 1885, Jackson was appointed General Agent of Education in the  Alaska Territory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alaskool.org/native_ed/articles/s_haycox/sheldon_jackson.htm|title=Sheldon Jackson in Historical Perspective|publisher=alaskool.org}}</ref> Concurrent with the values of the expanding colonial administration, Jackson undertook a policy of deliberate acculturation. In particular, Jackson advocated an [[English-only]] policy which forbade the use of indigenous languages. In allocating $25,000 of federal education monies in 1888 he wrote, "[N]o books in any Indian language shall be used, or instruction given in that language to Indian pupils." In a letter to newly hired teachers in 1887 he wrote:
: It is the purpose of the government in establishing schools in Alaska to train up English speaking American citizens. ''You will therefore teach in English and give special prominence to instruction in the English language''…. [Y]our teaching should be pervaded by the spirit of the Bible."<ref>Dauenhauer, Richard. 1982. Two missions to Alaska. Pacific Historian 26(1).29-41.</ref>  (emphasis added)
The legacy of Jackson's educational policy is clearly evident in the now precarious state of Alaska's indigenous languages.<ref>Krauss, Michael E. 1980. Alaska Native Languages: Past, Present, and Future. (Alaska Native Language Center Research Paper 4). Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.</ref> His policy prohibiting indigenous languages in Alaska schools was enforced from 1910 to 1968.<ref name="Michael Krauss 1980"/><ref name="ankn.uaf.edu"/> Decades of punishment for speaking Native languages resulted in greatly decreased transmission from one generation to the next, with the result that relatively few indigenous Alaskans speak Native languages in the 21st century.<ref>Krauss, Michael E. 2007. Native languages of Alaska. The Vanishing Voices of the Pacific Rim, ed. by O. Miyaoka, O. Sakiyama & M.E. Krauss. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref>

In March 1885, Judge [[Ward McAllister Jr.]] ruled that the contracts Jackson had secured with [[Tlingit]] parents, giving up their children for a period of five years for a small sum of money, to be null and void. This greatly reduced the number of students at Jackson's school. Jackson repeatedly sparred with McAllister and the district attorney, and mounted a campaign with President [[Grover Cleveland]]'s family members to have the officials dismissed. The president dismissed them between May and August 1885. In May 1885, Jackson was indicted by a grand jury of Russian-Tlingit creoles, in a controversy over land rights. Jackson then found himself in jail for several hours.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://alaskabar.org/wp-content/uploads/1WLegalHist163.pdf|title=The Shaky Beginnings of Alaska's Judicial System|last=Naske|first=Claus-M.|journal=Western Legal History|volume=1|number=2|year=1988}}</ref>